Completed on 7/14! June 2016--Poly Villa Mother/Daughter trip with FOOD!

[ChrissyBeth29]

Welcome! I am a HUGE Disney fan! I even have a podcast about all things Disney with my bestie!(Disney Dreaming Podcast...on soundcloud and iTunes). My mom and I got a GREAT rate and will be heading to my favorite place, WDW! We will be there from June 18-June 24. We are coming from Massachusetts, so I am assuming it's going to be HOT AS HECK! We will be staying at my DREAM resort...the Polynesian. We snagged a Standard Studio Villa with a great pin code rate. We are paying $150 less per night than rack rate. I haven't been to this resort to stay since my dad passed away 20 years ago, so this will be bittersweet!

We are planning on spending a lot of time at the pool during the afternoons, and I can't wait to monorail hop. Neither of us eat a great deal, and we wouldn't eat that much in the heat anyways, so we are not doing the dining plan. Here are the ADRs I have set so far...I am SURE that many will change and there will be many CS's thrown in for good measure.

Oct 19---Crystal Palace Breakfast
Oct 20--Kona Cafe Dinner
Oct 21--lots of counter service--AK this night..so possibly Pizzafari...new menus so why not
Oct 22--Be our Guest breakfast
Via Napoli dinner
Oct 23--Mama Melrose dinner

I am thinking of throwing in an Illuminations Sparkling Dessert Party...I don't know it it's worth it.

Counter Service I MUST HAVE:
Kona Island Sushi
Contempo Cafe
Captain Cooks
Starring Rolls
Pizzafari??---This is hard as there is nothing in AK I want to try, but we will be there for the night on Tuesday!

SNACKS galore will be had!

 

[Legendofthehawk]

Subbing!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

So I totally posted the above with the wrong dates! lol I will be there in June, not October. Well I will be there in October as well, but on different dates. I have also added an ADR. On Tuesday, June 21 we will be having lunch at the BOATHOUSE. I am pretty excited about this. First I am excited because I haven't seen the new Disney Springs. Second I am excited because the menu looks awesome! Yay!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

And the changes continue! lol Due to our snagging of the elusive Jungle Book show fpp and Frozen Ever After, we got to change around our plans. We will now be also going to Artist's Point. I'm super excited about this because I hear the Portobello Soup is amazing!

 

[SunnieRN]

This sounds like a wonderful trip and a good way to remember happy thoughts about your dad!

Looking forward to your reviews! I hope your trip will be filled with fun, good food and pixie dust!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

And the changes keep a comin! lol So we are now scrapping Kona dinner and going with Skipper Canteen! I'm pretty excited now that they take ADR's. My mom is NOT an adventurous eater, but I will have her do the chicken. We also are eating lunch at the BOATHOUSE! The menu looks fabulous! They changed the hours at the MK so now what was a pre RD adr for Be our Guest is no longer. I canceled because I feel like $24 for breakfast is NOT cheap. The only reason we were going to do it was to see the park without huge crowds. Now it won't be needed!

 

[MissKIA]

We're going to be there almost the same dates as you! We will be there from the 18th to the 26th. I am sooooo excited as I am sure you are!! Can't wait to read all about your food adventures.

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

We have arrived! We got to the Polynesian Village resort and checked in at around 9:45pm. After being assigned a room in a building I did NOT request, they adjusted and we were on our way to Capt'n Cooks! I've been stalking the menu and had narrowed it down to two options: grilled ham and cheese or Hawaiian flatbread! It was going to be a Gametime decision! I got to the cast member and blurted out Hawaiian flatbread, my destiny had spoken I wish my destiny had spoken differently. It wasn't hot, and I guess I missed the description where it said 'lots of purple onion'. I also had a water and a Minnie Mousse cupcake again..I chose incorrectly. The chocolate mousse that was on the top was good. It was not overly sweet and had a nice texture. The cake part was dry and tasteless. I had five bites and threw most of it away. My mom chose the aloha pork sandwich with house made chips.
She chose well. The pork had good flavor. The chips were disappointing though. We then headed to our room for our garden grocer delivery. We have a 9:05am Crystal Palace tomorrow morn! Yay

 

[dnllmz]

I can never resist housemade chips. That looks good.

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

So we were up bright and early and heading towards the Magic Kingdom for our morning ADR. We were eating at the Crystal Palace, a place I have not eaten at since 1998. Now neither my mother nor I eat enough to justify a lot of buffet meals at Walt Disney World. Yet we love the nostalgia and the all-around adorable-Ness of this place. I mean it's a classic, right? 31$ per person is a lot, if you only get one small plate of food! It was tasty and the characters were adorable! We toured the MK until 1pm and then headed back to the Poly! I was not overly excited about last nights counter service, so we decided to try the other counter service at this hotel. We went to the Oasis Grill and the Oasis bar! I was not super hungry, but I wanted something. I got the kid's aloha burger. It had a pineapple on it and was actually delicious even though saying it out loud makes it sound really disgusting. LOL we both got the same thing. Then from the bar, I got a Moscado Colada. This thing is amazing. Frozen and delicious on a hot day was exactly what we needed. The passion fruit foam gives it a nice our tinge.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in that awesome cool. I know all the people are all about the love approval, but this pool still has a lot going for it. It was really a nice afternoon. That evening we were heading to Hollywood studios and we had an ADR at Mama Melrose. It is one of my favorite restaurants in DHS. And I'm kind of sad that I think with all the changes at the studios. This thing is going to be going sooner rather than later! We checked in early for our 6:20 ADR and were seated within 2 minutes. The two of us were seated at a four top and it is really just supercharging of this restaurant. I love the New York Trattoria vibe. We were Brought Ciabatta rolls, and oil with some heavy spices in. I did not really care for the spices, but the bread was good. We both chose a flatbread. I went with the mushroom flatbread. Mom went with the margarita flatbread and had chicken added to it. My mushroom flatbread was so delicious! There was too much of it, but what I had was great. The balsamic drizzle was the best aspect. My mom said hers was 'good', which for her is high praise. We decided against dessert cause I had something else in mind. We had a pipe to our hotel and made our way out to the pineapple lanai. Here I got what I have been waiting for, the dole whip. Only problem was but it was so hot that they had to put it. I ate it as I was watching the electrical water pageant. The day ended perfectly.

 

[accountingbabe08]

Have a great trip!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

June 20..full day #2! We lucked out today with the weather! For June, it was a high of 86 with relatively low humidity! Yes! We started with breakfast at Cap't Cooks. I got the kids French toast with bacon, 1% milk and a coffee. It came out to about $9 for breakfast...can't go wrong with that! It's just enough food to take the hungries out first thing! I knew we'd be having an early lunch so this was fine....dry but fine My mom went big with a cinnamon roll. She said it was meh. I feel this way about all of these on property! They always look like they are going to be better than they are! We then headed to Epcot and got most of Future World done. We had an 1140 for Soarin over the World and grabbed lunch at Sunshine Seasons before taking flight! I got the Cuban sandwich, an ice tea and an m & m cookie. Everything was delicious ! The bread was super crunchy and the pickles were nice and Briney. It was served with plantain chips that were a nice complement to the Cuban. The cookie..well I mean come on. How could it be bad?!? Mom's meal was basic. Fruit cup and chicken corn chowder. I was disappointed in her choice so I refused to take any pictures!

Next post will be drinks at Trader SAMs and dinner at Skipper Canteen!

 

[ChrissyLady]

Loving your reviews!!!!!!!!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

Monday night we headed into the Skipper Canteen. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I love trying new Disney restaurants, but if they stink what can you do?! We had a 6:20adr and checked in at 6:15! We sat for 45 seconds and then were promptly seated in the crew mess right as you walk in the door. What a cool place. I love all the touches and decor. We were in love. Our skipper was campy,but seemed to only be going through the motions. Either way we were fine with it. He started out with the bread and the dipping sauce. Neither of us cared for it. Nit was almost like maple syrup. I got a perrier(apparently I'm bougie now) and mom got the punch line punch. She said it tasted like a lot of different juices. We ordered and plain Jane shocked the pans off of me and got the grilled lamb chops with green lentil stew and I went basic with the Skip's Mac and cheese! Both were amazing. We raved about how good it was. Te spices in the lentils got a bit too much for mom, but she devoured the lamb chops. The meat snide the Mac and cheese made me so happy. I didn't eat the whole thing, but I wanted to. I taste a nutmeg in it, so if that's not your bag, I wouldn't order it. We never get dessert(hahahha) but we went for it with the kungaloosh! My mom proclaimed that we shouldn't have shard one but each have gotten one. I asked about the upcoming menu change and our server said that it's coming and he can't wait to get rid of some of the clunkers on the menu. I think it's too bad. Before our ADR, I was not high on the Canteen. Now I can't praise it enough!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

I woke up early on Tuesday morn and was letting mom sleep in. So at 7am I was in the Great Ceremonial House bellying up to the coffee bar. Kona Island is a wonderful thing to have so close by. I went with the iced caramel macchiato and a blueberry muffin. The coffee was amazing. I dream about it. The muffin was fine...sticky though..which I find weird. I then sat in the very quiet Poly lobby and looked out the back doors at the castle. Perfection.

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

Once mom woke up, we headed to a new counter service for breakfast(I'm on vacation. Don't judge me for two breakfasts ). I was looking forward to this as I've heard great reviews. We got there and it was SLAMMED! This was the first crowded restaurant we'd seen all trip. Like you had to stalk a family at a table and hope they'd get up. Mom ordered the French toast. The woman didn't ask if she wanted fruit or if she wanted sausage or bacon. I got the steel cut oatmeal. Moms came with no fruit(she wanted fruit) and sausage and bacon was thrown on top(she only wanted bacon). It was also super dry. Meh. My oatmeal, on the other hand, was awesome. It was just sweet enough and the oats still had a bite to them. I swear it was quinoa oatmeal. All in all, it was fine. Nothing too special, but not as bad as Cap't Cooks!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

We then headed to Epcot. We had a 1pm reservation for lunch at Les Chefs de France. Now I did not have this originally on our meal plan, but mom was all jazzed up about it and requested I make it happen. We got to Epcot via the International Gateway and it was finally HOT in the parks. We had lucked out the first couple of days with low heat, low humidity, and low crowds, a trifecta! Not so much luck this time. We made our way to Germany so that I could drool over all of the caramel delights in the Karamel Kuche. We then started back towards Les Chefs. I 'had' to stop and get something to drink, so Grand Marnier slushy it was! It was cool and just tasted enough like baby aspirin to be delicious! We then finished our drinks and headed into Les Chefs. We were seated right near the windows outside. We could see the waiter acrobat in front of us, it was perfect. I was only going to have soup and a salad, but mom convinced me to do the prix fixe meal. This was a mistake. it is too much food and we barely ate it. The server kept asking if everything was okay! lol I had the onion soup, the macaroni and cheese, and a chocolate swan mousse. Mom had the lobster bisque, the beouf bourginoune and a chocolate dessert. It was all fine, nothing too spectacular. In my mind it was far too expensive for lunch, but he...when in France...

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

We then rolled ourselves back to our hotel. We had the Animal Kingdom that night and were only going to eat counter service there. Well that did not go so well. After the Jungle Book show, all the counter service locations were closed. We headed back to the Poly and decided Capt Cooks it is. Mom went with the Hawaii flatbread and I got smart this time(11pm) and ordered the chicken caesar salad! Thank goodness I found something that tasted good at Cap't Cooks!

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

Ooooh...I just realized I forgot an update. On the night we went to Skipper Canteen, we stopped first at our hotel. We hit up Trader Sam's Grog Grotto. Inside was busy, so we sat outside on the terrace. How gorgeous it was. There was live music, and the weather was ideal. Mom and I both got the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki rum! I was nervous because it said it had nutmeg, which was weird to me. It actually was DELIGHTFUL! I could have sat there and drank them all night!

 

[TeresaNJ]

Enjoying your reviews! That nutmeg drink at Trader Sam's sounds yummy!